Keep Them Talking

In 1987, sophomore Gregory Piccioli ’89 sat in the audience of the The Geraldo Rivera Show, looked around the studio and said to himself, “This is pretty cool. I think I’d like to do this.” And with those words, he set out on a path that would lead to an over-25-year career as a daytime talk show producer.

Prior to coming to Adelphi, Piccioli would often visit a friend who worked for a radio show on WBAU, the University’s former student-operated radio station. “We would hang out and I would help her put on the show,” he remembered.

After seeing The Geraldo Rivera Show, Piccioli switched his major to communications. To fulfill his internship requirement, “I wrote The Geraldo Rivera Show and they eventually hired me as an intern,” Piccioli recalled. After he earned his degree, the show hired him to work in the mailroom. “In this business, you need to start from the ground up,” said Piccioli. Within a few years, he’d worked his way up to producer, where he remained until the show ended its run in 1998.

Piccioli then moved on to become the coordinating producer at The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, then as a segment producer for The View. “Barbara Walters was a mentor beyond mentors to me, and it was also amazing to work with another living legend, Whoopi Goldberg.”

And the Emmy Goes To…

Over the course of his career, Piccioli also had stints with shows like The John Walsh Show and briefly worked at the Fox News Network. In 2015, he became a producer on The Dr. Oz Show, a role that would win him an Emmy Award for Best Informative Talk Show.

Piccioli then took on his current position as the senior producer of The Wendy Williams Show. His primary responsibility is producing the “Hot Topics” segment of the program. “Producers generally put shows together and have segments to work on,” Piccioli explained. “You’re given a celebrity or expert who’s booked and you do research and pick out those nuggets of information you think you can produce in a way that hasn’t been seen or heard before.”

Some of his earliest experiences producing came from working on projects at Adelphi, and he credits Adelphi for helping prepare him for a career that he admits can oftentimes be stressful. “It’s a lot of pressure, but through the years I’ve developed a thick skin,” he said. “You can’t let something bad from a previous show affect your show today.

“To be successful, you have to be creative, determined and, most of all, hardworking,” he continued. “Success in the daytime talk show industry takes a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work. I’m lucky to have worked steadily for over 25 years in a career that I love.”